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Monday, September 5, 2011

13 Months + 1 Day

So they stopped making the t-shirt stickers at 12 months but since the Squirrel is still changing so much from month to month, I'm going to try to keep up these monthly updates. We took full advantage of Labor Day weekend so my post is one day short but good thing since we have a big development in the last 24 hours.

Harps has started walking! Well, it's more like stumbling, lunging and having her parents throw their hands in front of whatever object her face is careening towards. We've been working pretty hard on this milestone and the girl was taking 3-5 steps between Jared and me . But yesterday she was holding onto a piece of furniture, let go and made her first self-attempt at walking towards Jared. As you can imagine, the cheers started instantly and I'm sure the neighbors must think we're really excited about the US Open with all of the excitement in our household. Over the last 24 hours, we're still working on the walking and, although she resembles a drunk elf, I can officially say we have movement people!

Those two pesky top teeth finally popped in so we have a total of four teeth.

You'd think the lack of teeth would slow a girl down but our child is an incinerator! She eats non-stop, has massive meals to the point that I think her little pot belly is going to pop open and now, when she sees one of her parents break out a snack, she scrambles over and opens her mouth like a little bird waiting to be fed. Bad habit, yes, but how are we to resist that sweet little face?

Harps is a sleeping champion. She goes down between 6:30pm - 7pm and sleeps uninterrupted until 7am. She takes one nap a day from noon until 2:30pm or 3pm.

She's really into balls, books, anything with buttons, opening and closing doors and drawers, loves getting out of the house (and now that its down in the 90's, we hope to be doing alot more of this), has started dancing all of the time, likes her babies that make noises, especially when she can push a button to set the noise off and loves going through purses and bags.

She babbles non-stop when she's at home or in the car but it really doesn't have any meaning. I'm working rigorously on naming and repeating everything but no such luck. Everything is still "Uhhh, uhhh, uhhhh". Come on Harper - I assume Harvard is going to need to hear you speak for your admissions interview. She'll go directly towards the word I say but there is absolutely no repeating it or mimicking it. Well, unless its Dadadadada. She LOVES her Dadadada.

Harps has gotten REALLY affectionate in the last month. She hugs and gives kisses randomly throughout the day. Her kisses are still big open mouth kisses but they come at the most unexpected time, she'll pause what she's doing, lift her head to yours, open up her mouth and just wait until you kiss her back. Then she'll repeat this about 3-4 times and move along. Just melts a momma's heart!

We started Harper in the day school at church twice a week to get her good and socialized before Numero Dos comes along. The school is incredible, fully accredited and one of the larger pre-schools in the area. Ideally, we would have liked to start her at 17-18 months but I had to get in line to sign up at 5am on a February morning and got one of the last spots in her class! We would have had to wait until the following school year to start her so she is officially the youngest child in the entire school. The first day was a little rough but she's really adjusting quickly and just has tears when we drop her off in the mornings. The teachers have commented what a sweet child she is and that she's one of the best eaters and nappers in the class...imagine that!